About half of British workers earn under £15 hour - new Living Wage?

[Melisha]

At the moment about half of the workforce earns under £15 an hour. We need to increase national minimum wage to £15 an hour, lifting many of the workforce out of poverty.
Do you agree NMW should be £15 an hour?

You realise shareholders, landowners, business owners, are all actually essential for those businesses running don’t you? And they all did SOMETHING to achieve that status. It is easy to sell up if it is no longer profitable and then all of a sudden none of their staff are getting any £x per hour as they are all left unemployed.

Yep And when they finally retire its "why didnt you save into a private pension" and "you do know that the state pension is a benefit"

And remember a higher minimum wage is useless if all the other costs go up, you are no better off.

Getting more houses built for social/affordable rent, especially aimed at those in work (25 hours+ a week) but earning under £40k as a household is the priority in my opinion. Currently there's not enough housing stock so it tends to get directed at those not working.

So it's not about the lowest paid 5 or 10%
But about the lowest paid 50%?
You have just picked 15 because that's approximately 50%, not because it's actually a living wage.
And then once everyone earns 15 minimum, next it would be 50% of people earn less than 17 so we need to increase it to 17??? It would literally never end.

15/hr puts you on 30k full time....that is a good salary.

The thing about people that get paid more, top earners, is that by definition they are worth it. Someone is willing to pay them that much money over anyone else rather than lose them.

I’m paid minimum wage for a local retail company with 8 sites. When NMW went up in April they cut everybody’s hours across the company by 3 hrs a week to pay for the increase, so we actually ended up slightly worse off.

THe company is struggling to recruit several supervisors at the moment as they are only prepared to pay 20pence more an hour for these roles for a much higher level of responsibility.

The answer is the costs for basic things like housing shouldn't be so fucking ridiculous. You should be able to afford a basic standard of living on a modest wage. Throwing more money at it via NMW or benefits doesn't actually solve anything. Yes there's inequality and some senior people are paid ridiculous amounts but that doesn't change the fact that a qualified nurse should be able to afford to live.

@FTPM1980 £15 an hour has not been chosen by me. It is the level chosen tio eradicate actual poverty.

Yep, it should be raised, on moral grounds too. A working family shouldn’t struggle to house themselves, feed themselves and pay for essentials. Instead we have a massive working force on benefits, because work doesn’t pay enough. Disgusting.

@BemoreJane Same in DPs place. People above come out with an extra £1500 a year and have shed loads of responsibility.

But it won't change anything.

Prices will go up to cover the increase or, as above, hours will be cut.

@Maverickess

Oh and don't forget we don't want people doing jobs like social or child care for the money, because they're not in it for the right reasons then. If they're not happily living in poverty and debt while providing a service and grateful for the opportunity, they're in the wrong job.
But they're only in poverty and debt because they're a failure.

And these people should be OK with having to fork out for their criminal checks every year
Even though it is a big chunk of weekly earnings.
Oh, and they must have their own transport and pay for the petrol

Just because they are it doesn't mean they're anything else than an employer embarrassment and definitely not an example that should be emulated or used to support your statement.

Interesting to see £30k described as a high wage when MN is normally full of people saying £120k is not that high a wage.

It’s not just the NMW though is it. I’ve spent a few years working my way up to band 4 nhs. If you raise NMW all the other bands have to increase too in order to keep it fair.

I mean I’d love it to happen but it’s never going to.

I earn just over £15ph. I'm seven scale points up from the starting wage for my job. If they put everyone up to £15ph then they won't put mine up proportionately. Therefore I am immediately devalued.

Not that I don't think everyone shouldn't be paid more but how do you fix this sort of issue? Took me a long time to get to that point on the scale.

I'm on £11.44 per hour so yes £15 would be good. My fellow VCAs, receptionists and admin assistants were supposed to get 3% on top but the veterinary nurses complained that it took us too close to what they got paid (£13 I think).

That's why I asked for clarity but you haven't provided any context for the 15/hr

It's not just the costs will rise to pay for the increase....its that inflation rises because people can pay more for things they want.

I mean… I get why it’s irksome but it’s mad really that they’ve done this as it literally makes no material difference to them (and presumably would have provided leverage for an increase themselves). As long as someone else gets substantially less they’re happy?!

I feel like this kind of attitude is post-2010 Britain all over…!

Rrrriiiigggghhhht?!

@FTPM1980 this has been a campaign for a few years. I am surprised you have not heard about it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62656500

Of that half, how many earn £15 or more per hour once you take into account in-work benefits I wonder?

Well considering an article from the BBC in April had the Tesco boss talking about the £2.3bn, up from £882m, pre tax profit, I think they can afford the £30m to increase the wages of the nmw staff, and still not cut into an increased profit significantly. Even doubling that figure to take account of scaling up other wage increases still leaves an increased profit of £812m.

Instead the tax payer is supporting many of their nmw workers instead and Tesco get to pocket another £30m in profit.

I earn just under £15 per hour as a nurse, so the NHS would need to dramatically increase pay if the NMW was increased to £15 per hour. Why should a trained professional earn the same as a till worker at b&m with no qualifications?

Also I would be changing my career and leaving the medical profession if I could earn the same working at a till in B&M as I do in nursing!

Well yeah – so maybe there would be pressure to increase wages to attract workers.